Liberation Audio

After last night’s indecisive result, a massive effort is underway by the Trump campaign and Republican Party apparatus to prevent hundreds of thousands if not millions of votes from being counted. This effort has a clear racist character — hundreds of thousands of mail-in ballots concentrated in cities with majority or near-majority Black populations have yet to be tabulated, and the final outcome of the election hangs in the balance. The struggle for the right to vote has historically been a central feature of the movement for Black freedom in the United States. The ongoing effort at large-scale voter disenfranchisement recalls the tactics of paramilitary and judicial repression used to enforce Jim Crow apartheid. Many other oppressed people also face the prospect of mass disenfranchisement by the reactionary court system, including the right-wing supermajority on the U.S. Supreme Court. Specifically, this is taking the form of court challenges in Michigan and Pennsylvania with the goal of stopping the vote count and ultimately disqualifying large numbers of mail-in ballots on bogus pretexts. Members of the Party for Socialism and Liberation are in the streets today resisting this racist voter suppression campaign. Our placards and banners tonight will read “Stop Trump’s Racist Voter Suppression!” and “Stop the War on Black America!” We understand that the political crisis is dynamically evolving, and it is of the utmost importance to be tactically flexible and prepared to adapt to rapidly changing circumstances. The PSL’s branches have for weeks been preparing materials, banners and signs that were aimed at building a mass working-class movement to fight for the very reforms that Biden said he would veto: Medicare for all, defunding the police and the Pentagon, the cancellation of rents and debts, and so on. From day one of any incoming Biden administration, the essential thing is to launch a politically independent movement that will not wait in vain for the corporate-controlled Democratic Party to deliver progressive change. That is largely what happened when the Democrats controlled the White House and the Congress in 2009. For today, however, we will keep those banners and signs on hold. The fundamental issue of this moment is the Republican Party’s attempted disenfranchisement of large numbers of working-class and Black voters. If Biden were to consolidate his victory in the coming days — as it appears he may if he can hold on to Michigan and Wisconsin, and squeak through in Arizona and Nevada — it would be essential to immediately prepare a struggle against that administration’s neoliberal program and Biden’s life-long program of imperialist war and intervention. Read the full article here: https://www.liberationnews.org/trump-goes-all-in-on-racist-voter-disenfranchisement-after-indecisive-election-night/

Concluding a five year-long trial, a Greek court ruled today that the fascist outfit Golden Dawn was operating as a criminal organization and its leaders were therefore guilty of functioning as organized crime bosses. This could be a fatal blow to what was until recently perhaps the most institutionally powerful openly Nazi organization in the world. Until last year they had 18 members in the Greek parliament, and at their height opinion polls showed that one-in-ten Greeks intended to vote for Golden Dawn. There were several components of the marathon legal battle. The central incident was the brutal murder of Pavlos Fyssas, an anti-fascist rapper who was stabbed to death by Golden Dawn members in 2013. The attempted murder of an immigrant worker in 2012 and a violent assault targeting communist labor organizers in 2013 were also under consideration in the proceedings. The court found that this type of violent, criminal activity was directed from the top leadership of Golden Dawn. They could now face anywhere between 5 and 15 year prison sentences. The court’s ruling after an excruciatingly long wait is a victory for the mass anti-fascist movement in Greece that has deep roots in the country’s working class. Tens of thousands rallied outside the courthouse in Athens as well as the second largest city Thessaloniki on the day of the decision. Establishment politicians in Greece cynically tried to portray the ruling as a victory for the status quo. Former Prime Minister Antonis Samaras said for instance, “Today, democracy and our national and European values have been vindicated.” But it was Samaras himself, politicians like him and the European Union that created the conditions that led to the rise of Golden Dawn in the first place. Read the full article: https://www.liberationnews.org/nazis-dealt-major-blow-in-greece/

After multiple delays in presidential elections, Movement Towards Socialism (MAS) presidential candidate and ex-Minister of Economy Luis Arce Catacora was elected by over 52 percent of the popular vote according to preliminary estimates. The crushing victory for MAS deepened as the party won a majority of seats in both chambers of the legislature. MAS is the party of Evo Morales, the democratically-elected president who was overthrown in a U.S.-backed police and military coup last year. Morales, a prominent union leader, was the first Indigenous president in Bolivia’s history. His administration ushered in a process of deep progressive change called the Democratic and Cultural Revolution that empowered the country’s working class and Indigenous majority. Last night Morales declared triumphantly, “We’ve recovered our democracy.” Leonardo Flores, an international election observer, spoke with Liberation News about the mood in the country, “Last night’s results led to tears of joy, but also tears of sorrow in remembering all the lives lost over this past year and all the damage done by this fascist coup regime. But overwhelmingly the mood is one of jubilation and relief. La Paz is incredibly calm this morning.” The Bolivian people stood up to vote for sovereignty and regain their democracy. This is a humiliating blow to the far-right regime of coup-installed president Jeanine Áñez and is being celebrated by the left across Latin America. Read the full article: https://www.liberationnews.org/weve-recovered-our-democracy-bolivian-coup-regime-humiliated-as-socialist-wins-landslide-election/

Intense fighting that broke out on Sunday between Armenia and Azerbaijan has left scores dead and hundreds wounded as the two neighboring states teeter on the brink of all-out war. At issue is the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, an enclave surrounded and claimed by Azerbaijan but de-facto controlled by forces representing the region’s Armenian majority. Armed clashes were registered on the morning of September 27. Both Armenia and Azerbaijan blame the other side for initiating hostilities, but within hours battles were taking place involving artillery, airpower and ground forces. The two countries’ governments have both declared martial law. All-out war between the two sides has not been seen since 1994, when an internationally-brokered ceasefire ended years of fighting that left tens of thousands dead. But fears are mounting that warfare on this scale could resume. Members of the Minsk Group — the guarantor states led by Russia, France and the United States that is tasked with monitoring the 1994 ceasefire — are attempting to mediate. The conflict is made more complex by a number of geopolitical factors. The chauvinistic, ultra right wing government of Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan views Armenia as an enemy state, a position held by successive Turkish capitalist governments with roots in the genocide against Armenians initiated by the Ottoman Empire in 1915. Turkey is a member of the imperialist NATO military alliance, and uses its diplomatic and military weight to support Azerbaijan. Israel is also a top supplier of weaponry to the government of Azerbaijan. Armenia, on the other hand, maintains a key alliance with Russia. Although it was conceived as a bloc to combat the Soviet Union, NATO has maintained its hostile posture towards Russia even after the dissolution of the USSR. Read the full article here: https://www.liberationnews.org/why-are-azerbaijan-and-armenia-on-the-brink-of-war/

These are excerpts from Gloria La Riva's answers at the Third 2020 Open Presidential Debate. Listen to Gloria elucidate the PSL's socialist platform in comparison with other third parties. Topics include abolishing the supreme court and anti-democratic electoral systems, the limits of reforms like UBI and breaking up big companies like Facebook, and most of all, the necessity for a new system that replaces the fundamentally and undeniably broken system of capitalism. For more information visit: https://www.lariva2020.org

Listen to analyses by the Party for Socialism and Liberation on the 2020 presidential debates! You can read the articles here. https://www.liberationnews.org/trump-and-biden-agree-u-s-empire-should-reign-supreme/ https://www.liberationnews.org/two-mockeries-of-democracy-instead-of-one-biden-and-trump-town-halls-replace-debate/ https://www.liberationnews.org/harris-vs-pence-debate-no-real-choice-under-capitalist-democracy/ Find out more about the La Riva 2020 Presidential campaign: https://www.lariva2020.org

A vivid, flourishing, and diverse musical life developed in the Soviet Union. This vibrant culture was built by professional and amateur artists from among and across its many different nationalities, and spanned styles and genres from classical forms like ballets and orchestras to popular forms like rock and jazz music. Amateur workplace ensembles were promoted to engage workers actively in performances as members of bands, orchestras, and choirs. Debates raged about the path Soviet music should take moving forward. Yet much of this culture remains either shut off or misconstrued to Western audiences–not by its Soviet creators, but by Western scholars, music directors, historians, and performers who have misinterpreted the cultural contributions of Soviet workers through the anti-communist prism of the Cold War. American composer Aaron Copland, in his speech to the 1949 Cultural and Scientific Conference for World Peace held at the New York Waldorf-Astoria hotel, expressed his concern that the Cold War that he and Soviet composers already saw emerging in the wake of World War II would lead to a lack of musical exchange between the two sides of the conflict to the detriment of artists in both countries: “One can never tell in advance what will stimulate the imagination of an artist. If a brilliant new composing talent emerges from Tajikistan we all want to hear what his music is like. If a bright new composing star rises out of the Kentucky Mountain area we think the Russian people should know what his music is like” [1]. With the end of the war and of the celebration of music by allied Soviet composers like Dmitri Shostakovich, the anti-communist consensus of the West shifted along the fault lines of the global class war, anchored at the workers’ side by the Soviet Union and on the imperialist side by the United States. The imperialist side cast Soviet music as—to the exclusion of minority nationalities in the Soviet Union—Russian, propagandistic, and written simply to please dimwitted bureaucrats who directed art policy from the halls of government, detached from and above the heads of the artists involved in the day-to-day creation of Soviet art. Read the full article: https://liberationschool.org/re-examining-soviet-music-and-socialism/

Anti-government protests in Belarus continue in the wake of the Aug 9 presidential election. Economic decline, coronavirus mismanagement and the government’s response to the protests have driven many Belarusians into the streets, including youth and industrial workers. Although the protests’ stated target is Lukashenko, the real political aims of the leadership of the opposition is to bring Belarus into the U.S. and European Union sphere of influence. The opposition’s self-appointed leaders openly call for privatization and foreign interference – policies that would immiserate the working class and relegate Belarus again to foreign domination. Read the full article: https://www.liberationnews.org/whats-behind-the-crisis-in-belarus/

Lillian House, one of the Denver anti-racist activists recently arrested, and, after a mass struggle, released on bail, writes about how and why sexual abuse runs rampant in the U.S. "justice" system. Read the full article, originally published in Breaking the Chains: https://liberationschool.org/sanctuaries-of-sexual-abuse/

Climate researcher discusses the West Coast wildfires and why capitalist government efforts are insufficient. The podcast also includes a narration of the preface from the author's new book, 'Climate Solutions Beyond Capitalism'.